The available evidence does indicate that smokers were at a heightened risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes.
— Dlamini Zuma
The banning of tobacco in restaurants, many people have stopped smoking. Our worry is that winter is coming. Flu is gonna come and tobacco is going to irritate chests. Your chest and there is COVID-19 on top of that you can make things worse than they are. It’s going to crowd the system.
— Dr Thobile Mbengashe
If we go into the depths of the legal argument it is quite baffling as they state in their own papers, and even in some of the medical reports that they rely on, that there is no link between smoking and Covid-19
— Sinenhlanhla Mnguni of FITA